Heenan Blaikie partners vote to wind up operations

Partners of law firm Heenan Blaikie LLP, a Canadian legal powerhouse which has for years been a favourite place for retired prime ministers, premiers and cabinet ministers to spend their post-political days, have decided to wind up the firm.

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The firm made the announcement in a one-page statement issued Wednesday night.

“This decision follows an in-depth analysis of the available restructuring options in the current context of Canada’s legal services market,” the firm said. “An orderly wind-up will make it possible to continue serving the Firm’s clients without interrupting or disrupting service and to ensure a harmonious transfer of their files to other law firms. It should be noted that several practice groups and even entire offices will continue to operate under new names.”

The end seemed inevitable this week. Employees and support staff in the Montreal office, where Roy Heenan, Donald Johnston, and Peter Blaikie established the firm in 1973, were told to start packing up their things on Tuesday. “Unbelievable,” said one lawyer familiar with the scene at the firm. By Wednesday lunchtime, a trickle of staff were leaving the executive offices, some exchanging final farewells. “You’ve always been good to me, thank you,” said one woman to a colleague. Another staffer complained of having been strip searched.

Firm management has contacted other Canadian law firms to ask if they might take on the articling students who were supposed to have started working at Heenan Blaikie later this year.

Not every partner has stuck around for the announcement. Senior lawyers from Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto left Heenan Blaikie in droves on Wednesday to take up positions with other firms. At least eight former Heenan Blaikie labour lawyers had accepted or were expected to accept positions with Fasken Martineau Dumoulin LLP in Montreal. Five other Heenan labour lawyers were expected to move to Fasken’s office in Toronto. Meanwhile, in Montreal, Dentons Canada LLP confirmed that it has hired five real estate experts and two financial services lawyers from Heenan Blaikie.

Since it was founded in Montreal 40 years ago, Heenan Blaikie has grown into one of the country’s largest and best known law firms, with 500 lawyers working out of nine offices across Canada and one office in Paris. Former prime minister Pierre Trudeau worked there after he left politics in 1984. Former prime minister Jean Chrétien works as counsel in the firm’s Ottawa office, as does former Supreme Court of Canada judge Michel Bastarache. Former Quebec premier Pierre Marc Johnson works as counsel in the Montreal office.

Yet a few weeks ago, firm management told partners that income per partner had dropped about 10% to 15%. This sparked a “run on the bank” of legal talent, as more than 30 senior partners moved to other more profitable firms, taking their clients with them. Those familiar with Heenan Blaikie’s financial situation insist the firm is far from broke. It just hasn’t been able to absorb the rapid rate of partner and client departures.

FP Legal Post reported last Friday that the firm was considering several options, such as closing regional offices or exploring a merger with an international business firm. On Sunday, Heenan Blaikie had issued a statement that warned of an upcoming “major restructuring.”

On Tuesday, FP Legal Post reported that Heenan Blaikie was planning to cut the size of its office by half to between 60 and 80 lawyers focused on business law. Reports say partners in the Toronto and Western Canadian offices are trying to organize a deal to become the Canadian office of a major international business law firm, possibly DLA Piper.

Norman Bacal, who was national co-managing partner of Heenan Blaikie from 1997 to 2012, and who has in recent days emerged as spokesman for the firm, told FP Legal Post that he would have “some comment” on the announcement in the next two days.

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